Today Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, reintroduced the Innovation Act—the strongest bill targeting patent trolls we've seen [PDF]. The language mirrors the legislation that the House overwhelmingly passed and the White House supported in late 2013.

Philip Johnson is Chief Intellectual Property Counsel of Johnson & Johnson, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. He is also a representative member of the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, the leading trade group opposing patent reform this past year.

And now he's rumored to be next in line to be the director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Earlier this month, the Senate took patent reform off the table for this legislative session. The Senate leadership did this despite the fact that a strong bill passed in the House with overwhelming support. And thousands of constituents have called for meaningful reform to finally put an end to patent trolling.

Patent reform suffered a massive setback today when Senator Patrick Leahy, as chair of the Judiciary Committee, announced that he is taking patent reform “off the agenda.” We understand that other senators—particularly Sens. Chuck Schumer and John Cornyn—were still working hard to reach a bipartisan deal. Just as they were ready to release a new bill, Leahy stepped in to kill the process.